Supporting SMEs THE WORLD Bank (WB) and the Egyptian government recently signed a contract by virtue of which the WB will be granting Egypt a $300 million loan to support access to finance for small and micro enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs. The loan will support the government's programme to encourage sustainable expansion of this sector, which is estimated to account for over 99 per cent of Egyptian enterprises, 85 per cent of non-agricultural private sector employment, and almost 40 per cent of total employment. This is the first World Bank funded initiative to support the small and micro enterprises in the MENA region. "We are particularly pleased to have this solid partnership with the Egyptian government and to be able to support the ongoing development of the [SME] sector," said David Craig, WB country director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti. Craig added that sustainable access to finance for SMEs would spur employment opportunities, help alleviate poverty, and boost economic growth for the most vulnerable citizens. The project will include a line of credit for micro enterprises that will be channelled through banks and NGOs. It will also include a line of credit for small enterprises that will be channelled through direct bank lending through branch networks, and bank linkages with NGOs and potential small enterprise finance companies set-up under a new microfinance regulation. Promoting trade EGYPT and Syria held their first business council meeting in Damascus this week. Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid and his Syrian counterpart Lamiaa Assi inaugurated the event. While in Damascus Rachid also met with Prime Minister Mohamed Nagui Etri. The two countries hope to take their relationship to a new level. A targeted trade balance of $3 billion has been set for the two countries. Their trade balance stood at $1.3 billion in 2008. There are around 900 Syrian companies in Egypt with investments of $376.5 million compared to seven Egyptian companies investing around $44 million in Syria. Both Egypt and Syria agreed to establish a holding company to invest in both countries and abroad. They also agreed to open branches for Syrian and Egyptian banks in both Cairo and Damascus to facilitate the financing of joint trade and investment. On a similar note, Minister Rachid and Russian counterpart Victor Khristenko met late last week during the Egyptian-Russian Joint Committee for Economic Cooperation and agreed to start a new round of negotiations in July towards concluding a free trade area between them. The two ministers also signed a protocol for economic, commercial and scientific cooperation. According to Khristenko, Russia is eager to establish a free trade agreement with Egypt as a means of boosting economic cooperation between the two countries. He added that Russia is ready to cooperate in the construction of Egypt's nuclear power plant, given its experience in this field. Bilateral trade between the countries reached $2 billion despite the global economic crisis. Empowering consumers THE CONSUMER Protection Agency (CPA) is receiving more complaints at present then ever before. This reflects a higher sense of confidence on the part of the consumer. "Out of 22.334 complaints that have been received until 10 March, at least 88 per cent were solved through cooperation with other authorities," said Said El-Alfi, Chairman of CPA during a seminar that was organised by the agency to celebrate the international consumer day on Monday. El-Alfi pointed out that in the coming period, the authority will be working on increasing the consumers' awareness of their rights, expanding the authority's hotline coverage to include the governorates of Aswan, Sharqiya and Beni Sweif in addition to reinforcing the role of local consumer protection associations in different governorates. "This will include providing these associations with financial and technical support that would enable them to react efficiently to consumers' complaints and remarks." In addition to coordinating efforts with other ministries to enforce the consumer protection law, CPA is also consolidating ties with other international organisations for consumer protection. It is worth noting that Egypt is the first country in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region to join the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN), a conglomeration of 40 countries that aims at protecting consumers' economic interests around the world and encouraging global cooperation among law enforcement agencies.
